BP oil spill report: Expect more oil spill disasters with deregulation

President Obama’s oil spill commission has concluded that BP and Halliburton were both guilty of contributing to the cause of the Deepwater Horizon disaster which resulted in the worst oil spill in US history.

A 48 page final report released Wednesday found that BP failed to test the cement plug Halliburton used to seal the exploratory Macondo well.  The flawed cement mix failed, caused the rig to explode on April 20, 2010, and kill eleven crew members, dump nearly 5 million barrels of oil, and 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant into the Gulf of Mexico.

The commission concluded that short-cuts are an industry-wide practice that will result in continuing oil spill disasters, unless new, stiffer regulations are put in place.

The problem with preventing further oil spill disasters lies in the plans of the new republican congress.

Incoming chairman of the government Oversight Committee, Rep. Darrel Issa of California, has stated that he plans to roll back and remove as many government regulations as he can, including those that regulate the oil industry.

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Scientists find evidence of serious damage from BP oil spill

The oil BP tried to hide with nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant has been discovered in thick layers on the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico. The area of contamination covers several thousand square miles and scientists from the University of South Florida say the environmental damage is “significant.” All the marine life in the settled oil was dead, according to the scientists who saw the damage from research vessels.

The disruption to the food chain could be significant. Scientists may not know the full extent of the damage for months, if not years. Fish and other marine life that depended on the worms and other microorganisms to survive may also die if they are unable to find other food sources.

Biomarkers are tests that confirm the origin of spilled oil through a chemical signature. University of South Florida oceanographer David Hollander said in an interview that “he and colleagues have just completed tests showing that the chemical profile of oil they found in Gulf sediment matches that from the blown-out BP well,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Hollander said, “The chemical signatures are identical.”

Throughout the Deepwater Horizon disaster, numerous scientists and whistle blowers warned of the dangers of BP’s excessive use of dispersant on the massive oil spill. They claimed that sinking the oil rather than removing it from the surface was little more than a ploy by BP to hide the size of the spill, which in turn, would lower the amount of money the company would have to pay for environmental damage.

The Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, 2010 and the subsequent oil spill is reported to have poured 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The flame-engulfed rig sank into five thousand feet of water two days later.

Eleven men died in the explosion the night of the disaster. On June 23^rd, the US Coast Guard confirmed the death of two members of the cleanup crew who had been overcome by exposure to BP’s chemical dispersant. BP and the EPA claimed that the dispersant Corexit, was ‘as harmless as dish soap.’

Sunken oil from BP spill forms deadly blankets in Gulf waters

Fears of scientists over the BP oil spill are becoming evidenced in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Contamination from sunken oil is covering patches of the sea floor like black toxic blankets, smothering the ecosystem and threatening its delicate balance.

Sediment around the site of the BP blowout is showing high levels of toxins, according to data sited in the Wall Street Journal. “There is no practical way to clean up the spilled oil that has settled deep in the Gulf, officials said.”

During the height of the disaster, BP’s unprecedented use of nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant came under fire from the EPA and scientific community, and in early May, just two weeks after the April 20, 2010 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon that took eleven lives and marked the beginning of the disaster, the EPA ordered BP to stop using the dispersant for fear of long term environmental damage and risks to human health.

In June, under suspicion of a media blackout on the gushing Macondo well, the EPA did a sudden reversal on the dangers of the dispersant, issuing a report that claimed BP’s chemical was as harmless as ‘dish soap.”

The EPA turnaround, say whistleblowers, came in the form of pressure from the Obama Administration and BP officials concerned about the falling stock price of the oil giant.

By June 11th, 71 oil spill cleanup workers had been hospitalized in Louisiana, due to exposure to vapors from the toxic dispersant. On June 23^rd, the US Coast Guard confirmed the death of two members of the cleanup crew.

Privatizing TSA raises threat to national security

Image via Wikipedia

When it comes to government administration, the republican solution to just about every issue is, ‘turn it over to private industry.’ However to some, letting a sub-contractor who may be more interested in profits than safety is the equivalent of letting a privately run, for-profit company take over the military.

What a private company is likely to do is what they have done in the past; hire people at $8.00 an hour and make them work 10 hour days under the threat of firing them if they don’t like it.

How much do you think an underpaid, over worked employee will really care about what someone brings on a plane? And now many of them will only take the job because it’s the only work they can find?

Putting national security in the hands of private industry not only increases the threat to America, but also to the world.

In our new austere America, cost cutting by way of giving the United States government to Wall Street, is not new. Nor is the concept of prioritizing the bottom line over all else. Just ask the families of the eleven men who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Safety comes in second to profits in America. Now the GOP is making their pitch to sell our national security for what amounts to $8.00 an hour. Something is wrong with this picture.

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2010 Gulf oil spill aftermath: Millions of dead fish floating to surface

Image by SkyTruth via Flickr

The oil flow may have stopped flowing but the environmental disaster lives on. Environmental expert Rick Steiner believes that the oil spilled into the Gulf during the Deepwater Horizon disaster may have caused permanent damage to the ecosystem. Steiner and top NOAA official David Kennedy believe sheer volume of oil spilled is at the heart of the grim prognosis.

Approximately 4 million barrels of oil were poured into the Gulf of Mexico during the four month long gusher. Many scientists believe that BP’s heavy use of the chemical dispersant, made long term ecosystem damage worse.

Senior Washington Correspondent for the Huffington Post, Dan Froomkin said, “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is hoarding vast amounts of raw data that independent marine researchers say could help both the public and scientists better understand the extent of the damage being caused by the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico”

BP has been hiding data since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, 2010. Just days after the disaster took eleven lives, BP officials persuaded an unknown number of scientists with lucrative contracts designed to block the public release of environmental and public health and safety data.

In a recent Fox 8 News interview, Louisiana Plaquemines Parish President, Billy Nungesser said he was demanding federal involvement when it comes to testing the waters in the parish hit by heavy oil. “We’ve never seen so many species floating in so many different areas. I’m begging the E.P.A., or somebody,” he said, “I’m begging them to do their job, get out there and let’s test and see what the hell is going on in the water.” 

P.J. Hahn, the Director the Plaquemines Parish Coastal Zone Management Department, is also deeply concerned about the implications from the numbers of dead fish now floating to the surface in Louisiana waters.

Sources and related articles

• BP's Oil Spill Still Killing the Gulf [Oil Spill]

• Third fish kill reported in Plaquemines Parish

  BP oil spill: Gulf of Mexico environmental damage may be permanent: NOAA video

BP To Remove Damaged BOP From Gulf Oil Spill Well

Image via WikipediaBP is scheduled to remove the damaged blowout preventer from the well that leaked more than 4.7 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico during the course of a four-month long oil spill disaster that began on April 20, 2010, with the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The BOP will be used as evidence in the United States Attorney General’s Office criminal investigation against BP.

According to Gulf Oil Spill Incident Commander Thad Allen, The Department of Justice is overseeing the removal of the old blowout preventer, which failed to stop the oil well from gushing out of control.

“Keeping the blowout preventer intact is important because it's considered an essential piece of evidence in determining what caused the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon on April 20. After the explosion, 206 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico until the temporary cap stopped the flow. A new blowout preventer will be placed atop the well once the one that failed is raised. After that, the goal is to drill the final 50 feet of a relief well beginning Sept. 7, Allen said. From there, it will take about four days for drilling crews to reach their target,”according to Fox.

Once the new BOP is installed on the BP Macondo oil well, the relief well should complete the final sealing of the oil well before the end of September.